The Beagle Channel

We boarded a catamaran this morning for a four hour cruise down the Beagle Channel
with our destination being the Estancia Harberton. We left at 9 AM on a cloudy
but serene day. Only a small ripple could be seen on the water as we edged out
of Ushuaia?s port. The channel, 150 km long, is named after the ship HMS Beagle
which was involved in two hydrographic surveys of the coasts of the southern
part of South America in the early 19th century. During the first, under the
overall command of the Australian Commander Phillip Parker King, the Beagle's
captain Pringle Stokes committed suicide and was replaced by captain Robert
FitzRoy. The second is better known as the voyage of the Beagle and is famous
because captain FitzRoy took Charles Darwin along as a gentleman's companion,
giving him opportunities as an amateur naturalist.

Our first stop was a small island, nothing more than a large
rock in the middle of the channel, covered in lazing sea lions and penguins. We
approached silently on our catamaran and spent a half hour observing them. The
sea lions were mostly lying around with the occasional macho tussle between
young adult males and older patriarchs. The young males were attempting to win
against the older males in order to win his female harem. It was mostly a lot
of barking, body posturing and on a rare occasion their large masses colliding
into each other, trying to get a bite into the other. The older males always
won and the younger male would slink back to his barren rock corner. The
penguins on the other hand seemed to be oblivious to these going-ons and
continued to waddle, sleep and dive in-out of the ocean.

We slowly cruised past another island covered white with sea
bird guano. At the turn of the century it would have been considered white gold
as the phosphate would have been collected and sold as fertiliser to farmers in
the area. Now, with the scientific advancements in agriculture and the abundant
quantities of cow manure, these islands are left in peace as a safe haven to
the birds.

We continued to cruise down the channel, admiring the
mountains that were behind us and the passing landscape to our sides. From
afar, on our right, we spotted the community of Puerto Williams, on Navarino
Island, located in Chile. The borders of Tierra del Fuego, separating Chile and
Argentina, were not clearly finalised till mid-80s. Several small islands (Picton,
Lennox and Nueva) near the eastern end were the subject of a long-running
territorial dispute between Chile and Argentina; by the terms of a 1984 treaty
they are now part of Chile whilst Argentina has most maritime rights.

Even though it was calm, I was a little nervous that I would
get seasick once we got deeper into the channel towards the Atlantic Ocean, so
I took a couple of Gravol. This turned out to be a bad idea because I spent a
better part of an hour sitting in my seat fighting the drowsiness that came
with this medication. At least I didn?t have an upset tummy.

Our next stop was the Les Eclaireurs lighthouse, also known
as the Lighthouse at the End of the World. It was one of the nicest lighthouses
I had ever seen with its bright red and white striping standing out from the
rust, yellow and orange colors of the small rock cap it was located on. It was
directly in the middle of the channel and could be seen from miles away.

Four hours after setting off on our trip we arrived at Estancia Harberton.
The oldest Estancia on Tierra del Fuego and the oldest house on the Argentine
part of the island, it was built in 1886 on a narrow peninsula overlooking the
Beagle Channel. Its founder, the missionary Thomas Bridges, was given the
land by the Argentine Congress under President Roca for his work among the
local indians and for his help in rescuing the victims of the numerous
shipwrecks in the channel. Harberton is named after the Devonshire village
where his wife Mary was born. The farmhouse was prefabricated in England
by her carpenter father and then assembled on a spot chosen by the Yamana
Indians as the most sheltered.

We were greeted at the dock by a tour guide working for the estancia. He
explained that although it was still a working sheep and cattle ranch, it had
to turn to tourism in order to help it financially. It was still owned by a
member of the Bridges family and we were taken on a tour of the various
buildings, the family graveyard, a small plot of forest that had been preserved
since the founding of the ranch, the sheep shearing shed, the boat shed, and
finally to the small garden that supplied herbs and some vegetables to the
restaurant operating on-site. It had operated successfully as a ranch till the
1960s when a road was built to the ranch. This was a mixed blessing as it
reduced the travel time to the city from 3 hours by boat to 30 minutes by road,
but it also opened its cattle and sheep population to thieving by the local
population which liked nothing better than having a free barbecue on Sundays.
It went from having a considerable amount of animals to now only 300 head of
sheep located on a large island further down the channel and a dozen cattle.
When our tour ended, we had over an hour before our shuttle van was scheduled
to come get us. We were hungry so we walked to the restaurant with large bay
windows overlooking the channel. There was no much in choice and we finally
settled on a Parrillada (pronounced Pa-ri-sha-da) platter to share. About 20
minutes later, a small brazier was brought to our table with a large piece of
steak, chorizo sausage, chicken, blood pudding and lamb, along with a side of
salad. We tried our best to eat as much as we could but there was still quite a
bit of left-overs. Outside, in the long yellow grass, we glimpsed a fox slowly
hunting. It?s rare to see a fox, especially so near humans and in the daylight
so we took quite a few photos. We later learned there is a fox epidemic in
Tierra del Fuego as they are not native to the island. They were imported to
hunt the rabbits that had been imported earlier in the century but had
multiplied and run rampant. Unfortunately, like the rabbit the plan backfired
and the fox concentrated on hunting prey that was much easier to catch like the
local mouse population.

Our shuttle bus arrived on time at 3 PM. This was the next part of the trip
and although some people were excited we were hoping we didn?t spent too much
time at the next stop. Why do you ask? Because we were going to visit beaver
dams in the area. Turns out, that along with the rabbits, an enterprising
fellow in the late 1800s thought it would be a good idea to import 5 breeding
pairs of beavers. He planned to take advantage of the high market price for
beaver pelts and let them multiple. Unfortunately, like all animal import
stories, this idea didn?t work out as the beavers adapted too well to their new
environment and within one year their fur coats, which were so prized, changed
to a more coarse hair that was no good to furriers. Not knowing what to do with
them, he let them go in the wild and now they are a huge problem for the
island. Huge dam complexes and unstoppable logging by the beavers have caused
flooding and contaminated water all over the island. People living on the
mainland are crossing their fingers that the beavers don?t figure out how to
cross the Magellan straight separating them from the island of Tierra del
Fuego.

Our last stop of the day, was a Husky dog farm. Like in Alaska, in the
winter, there is a huge demand for dog-sledding and there are many races to be
won. There were about 20 full grown dogs, most with the blue-eyes that are a
trademark of pure-bred huskies, a few puppies and one very aggressive
St-Bernard. When the dogs heard us arrive, they were jumping all over the place
in their pen. Luckily, they were tied down as I think they would have all
rushed the fence out of excitement to see us. We were allowed into the pen and
to wander around the dog houses and to pet and play with all of them. They were
so sweet and just wanted as much love as we could give them. No one was immune
to their charms and they all received as much attention as the 13 of us could
give them. A couple to get more attention would jump on top of their dog houses
when a person would move on the next dog. Kevin made a bee-line for the puppies
that were located in another pen. They were so cute and were in that awkward
puppy stage of all feet and no coordination. If we could have, we would have
brought them all home with us. It was a sunny day and quite warm so a few of
them would hide in their house till someone approached them then they would
come flying out, tail wagging, for the petting. Time flew by and soon we had to
leave.

We returned to Ushuaia at 6 PM after a hard, bumpy gravel road trip. We were
both tired out and stayed up only for a couple of hours packing for our 11 hour
bus trip the next day to Punta Arenas, Chile located on the mainland across the
Magellan Straight.